[GLOBAL→ID] Nokia Global Network Traffic Report: AI ~44% of Global Traffic by 2035, Uplink & Edge Become the Pain Point — A New Network Planning Framework

Nokia projects global data traffic to grow ~4x to about 3,789 exabytes/month by 2035, with AI accounting for ~44%. Traffic from autonomous AI agents is projected to grow 160x and physical AI (robots, vehicles) 105x vs 2026 — mostly in the form of **uplink** (>90% of physical AI application traffic), demanding low latency and processing close to the user; edge + metro core are expected to serve 36% of AI-native traffic in 2035 (the "distributed AI grid" concept). Nokia CTO Pallavi Mahajan: "AI is changing what we need from networks — not just how much traffic they carry." All figures are vendor projections.

- **Why it matters:** This docu…